Shantel and the international acclaimed artist Oz Almog
presents on KOSHER NOSTRA an unparalleled journey back
in time to the music clubs, vaudeville theatres and gambling casinos in
the U.S.A. The sound can be described as wild mix of Swing, Jazz,
Twist, Charleston and the adorable charm of Yiddish songs and ballads.

The idea of Jewish gangsters in America is not something that
is deeply engrained in the popular imagination. Yet the character of
Hyman Roth in Coppola‘s The Godfather is based on Meyer
Lansky, one of the most colourful figures in the Jewish-American
underworld. Films such as Billy Bathgate, Cotton Club, Once Upon a Time
in America, The Godfather, Bugsy, Casino, Gangs of New York or the
current HBO series Boardwalk Empire are a mix of legend,
cliché, stereotype and historical fact. In Europe,
especially, the widespread myth of a predominantly Italian mafia in
America has long overshadowed the significance of Jewish gangsters. Yet
nobody who looks into the history of the American mafia can deny the
extent to which such figures as Meyer Lansky, Benjamin
‘Bugsy’ Siegel, Dutch Schultz or Louis
‘Lepke’ Buchalter shaped the machinations of the
underworld, along with the classic Sicilian godfathers. It is only in
the past ten years or so that any light has been shed on this in
Europe.

The artist Oz Almog addressed the issue in a high-profile exhibition
featuring
his own paintings together with police photographs, crime-scene
sketches, newspaper articles and the biographies of the gangsters
themselves.

Shantel, who actually
wrote his undergraduate thesis at
Frankfurt University on the topic of organised crime, has thoroughly
researched the KOSHER NOSTRA and its influence on American musical
culture, going to great and sometimes quite adventurous lengths to put
together this anthology charting the hidden history of organised crime
in America. The myth of KOSHER NOSTRA,
mafia methods as well as the
background, circumstances, lives and deaths of Jewish gangsters in
America all seem to us to be closely interwoven with the musical
history of the USA in a rich and fascinating tapestry of diverse
musical genres:

- In such hot-spots as New York, Chicago, Detroit and later Las Vegas,
the music of Eastern European Jews fused with African-American jazz to
create a new sound.
- Yiddish songs became incorporated into mainstream culture and became
internationally popular.
- Swing, a fusion of Black and Jewish musical forms, was the perfect
vehicle for such musicians as Abe Ellstein, Benny Goodman, Dave Tarras,
Sophie Tucker, Aaron Lebedeff and Al Jolson to go beyond the narrow
confines of their own ethnic culture.

The tracks on this anthology represent a parallel society made up of
various ethnic scenes, all with their own media and a open-minded
curiosity for new and exotic inputs from the WASP community on the one
hand and the predominantly Catholic Irish and Italian communities on
the other. This development of an aesthetic approach that crossed all
ethnic boundaries spawned a music, film and musical industry in
1920s/30s America that quickly spread, with an impact that was felt
even in Europe.

In the course of his research, Shantel and Oz Almog unearthed some
extremely rare
gems: who knew, for instance, that Connie Francis had once recorded an
entire album of Yiddish songs, or that Tom Jones had sung the praises
of “his” Yiddish Mama? Shantel also explored the
question of whether there was a musical milieu related to the criminal
activities of the mobsters and which musical careers were launched or
promoted at the time? What were the most famous and popular Yiddish
songs at the time, and which dance rhythms prevailed? Anyone who has
listened carefully to the music of the Bucovina Club in recent years is
bound to recognise some of the melodies.

This unparalleled journey back in time to the music clubs, vaudeville
theatres and gambling casinos of the 1920s to 1960s bears compelling
witness to the enormous diversity and truly remarkable fusion of
styles. The anthology is accompanied by an informative and detailed
essay, giving an introduction to the theme of KOSHER NOSTRA and
introducing each of the artists featured.